Is It October Yet? And Other Ramblings.

I’m kidding, but not really.

My BFF Manda is coming out for a visit! Not only that but we’re going to head up to New York Comic Con! I’m glad she’s able to come out. I was approved for NYCC but didn’t have anyone to go with. I didn’t want to drive to NYC alone which means this is a win/win for everyone! This will be her first out of state convention. Can you tell how excited I am? We plan to do some sightseeing as well and we’re staying on the Jersey side to save money. If you’re in the NYC area and looking for a convention to check out, I highly recommend NYCC. They already sold out of 3/4 Day badges but single day badges will go on sale next week.

Before that happens though there’s San Diego Comic-Con! In just a month I’ll be heading out to lovely San Diego to get my nerd on. I have a few finishing touches to put on Black Widow but nothing major. I finished up the bracelets, received my wig, and just need to order another holster which I’ll do today. I might try and pick up a fake knife as well. We’ll see. What I’m most excited about though is my Winter Solider dress that is being made by Smarmy Clothes. If you’re looking for anything custom, this is your girl! I plan on wearing it during the Marvel panel. Here’s the sketch!

I can’t wait! I should have it by the start of July. Which has me asking is it July yet?

In other non-convention news, expect a new look around here soon. I’m not sure when exactly but I’ve seen a mock up of a new header and it’s beyond cute and amazing! I can’t wait to see it finished. It’s being created by my friend Irma! She has a web comic too which all of you should go check out. Seriously, stop reading this and go check out her work!

Wait, don’t stop reading yet! I have more. I started playing softball again. I stopped about two years ago because I wasn’t feeling it anymore. It wasn’t fun and I didn’t look forward to it. A friend joined a new team and league and asked if I wanted to play. I said yes and I’m glad I did! It’s great! Everyone on the team is nice and around the same age. Plus we don’t play doubleheaders and all the games are just 55 minutes. Yes, just 55 minutes! Do you know how great that is when it’s 90 degrees outside? Right now the team is 0-2 but the last one was really close. That means we should actually win the next game.

How’s everyone else doing?

Widow Bites Anyone?

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I’ve been slowly putting together my updated Black Widow costume. I’ve bought new holsters, a much better belt buckle, and some other odds and ends. Today I took some time, along with my dad, to paint my Widow Bites. What exactly are Widow Bites? It’s the bracelets that Black Widow wears. They can send a pulse of electricity which shocks her victim but obviously I’m not going that far. Here’s a photo:

In order to create my take, I purchased a Bullet Belt that can be taken apart just by removing one of the bullets. It has the right shape and since it’s adjustable it’ll work for anyone. The only thing I need to do is paint it!

My Widow Bites!

Plastic Friendly Spray Paint

Luckily I already had some paint and didn’t need to buy any. I headed outside and spray painted them while they hung from a tree. I just used some wire stuff to do that. It made it easy to get every side and didn’t mess anything up.

It took maybe 10 minutes to do this, if that! It was a very simple and quick way to make a pretty important part of a costume. I’m still doing a few touch ups though. Since the bullets can rotate a bit, sometimes the gold shows. I put the bracelet together like I was going to wear it and gave it another spray. We’ll see how that works. In the end, I’ll just make sure the “correct” side of the bullet is showing.

The Devil Went Down To Georgia

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I took a nice little trip down to Augusta, Georgia over the Memorial Day Weekend. The reason for the trip was a wedding. If you remember I had married family friends here in Maryland back in February. The reason it was done here is because Georgia doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage. They wanted to have something legal and honestly, they’ve been together longer than most straight couples I know. I’m starting to ramble!

A long story short, they paid for my travel to come down and re-do the ceremony in front of their friends. A free trip to a state I’ve never been? Consider it done. I arrived Saturday and it was my first time flying on an express plane. It wasn’t horrible but I still like the larger jets better, as I’m sure most people do. My friends picked me up from the airport and dropped me off at Hotel #1. It was very nice and was fine for just a night. It was weird having a hotel room to myself. It was nice, but weird. I chilled there for a bit before we headed off to dinner. Roger is German which means we headed off to a local German place to eat. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Uh, you’re in Georgia? Good luck! Oddly enough, the restaurant is owned by an actual German! Everything is 100% authentic and was great. Sadly I ate too much and not being use to the food, I ended up getting sick back at the hotel. The good news was as soon as that happened I felt 100% better. My headache even vanished!

The next day was the wedding day. It was held at a small local theater where the couple goes on a pretty regular basis. It was really cute and made me think of Fells Point for some reason. I helped with set up (just a few ribbons here and there) and had a drink to calm my nerves. I was told about 60-70 people were expected to show up. I can say that everything went off without a hitch! The ceremony was beautiful, a few tears were shed and then it was time to party! The event was catered with different types of finger foods including mini chicken and waffles! The cakes were amazing too. There was a crab shaped cake (a crab cake hahahahaha) and an armadillo cake since one half of the couple is from Texas.

Aren’t they cute? Notice the gold rings as well? I love little details like that! After the party ended, which was hours later, we all headed to a pizza place for a real meal. I believe about 20 of us went. Oddly enough I ended up getting a salad because I was worried about my stomach. I was flying out the next day and didn’t want to risk anything. The salad was good though!

The next morning I took the shuttle to the airport and that ended up my quick weekend down south. I will say one of the funnier things to happen was a guy from South Carolina thinking that because I’m from Maryland that means I’ve never seen a gun. Have you heard of Baltimore City? Trust me, they have guns. Maryland is such a weird state. We aren’t South but we aren’t really North. We’re like an orphan state! I mentioned that my father has guns as well plus I had just gone shooting a few weekends ago. Granted, we aren’t allowed to carry weapons on us but seriously, we have guns too. For better or for worse.

“Elementary” Does A 2 Hour Episode Right

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*This post might contain spoilers for the “Elementary” finale*

Something CBS likes to do every now and then is throw out a few two hour finales for some of it’s shows. A few in the past include “Criminal Minds” and “The Mentalist.” The thing is, very rarely do these episodes actually deserve to be two hours. The episodes that come to mind are “Two Hell…And Back” from the 2009 “Criminal Minds” finale. I honestly believe that the storyline could’ve been nicely done in an hour. The episode felt like two episodes, or one really long episode that just never ended. In my opinion, a two hour episode shouldn’t have you looking at the clock. It should feel seamless, going from the first hour to the next without much interruption. It should just flow.

That’s what “Elementary” did on Thursday night. That’s right, a brand new show got something right that a few CBS staples couldn’t over the years. Not only that, but it featured a huge payoff for the viewer. Everything was wrapped up nicely. Everything made sense. It felt like one episode. When it was over, I couldn’t believe it had been two hours already. On Twitter, the Elementary Writers noted that the transition scene from hour one to hour two was filmed all at once. I don’t know how it was done for the other shows, but I feel like it helped make it feel smooth. I feel like editing can only do so much and I’ve watched enough TV (way too much TV) that I can tell when something seems “off.”

You know what else I liked? There wasn’t a cliffhanger! Crazy, right? A drama that didn’t have some huge “OMG NOW WHAT?!” cliffhanger. The Moriarty story arc was wrapped up (not that I’m convinced it’s over) with a twist. We weren’t left with a huge reveal at the end of an episode, instead we got to see it nicely play out for the last hour. I honestly would’ve been pissed if we hadn’t learned who Moriarty really was. The whole season was building up to that and thankfully they didn’t disappoint. Now we can see another side to Sherlock, a side that isn’t going mad with thoughts of his nemesis and the loss of his love. In his words, we’ll see him function with complete clarity.

All you other CBS shows out there should take note. This is how you do a two hour episode. I’m interested to see how this years two hour “Criminal Minds” plays out. Here’s hoping they’ve learned a thing or two from past episodes.

Where Is The Year Going?

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Seriously. I can’t believe it’s May 19th already. It’s going to be the end of the year before we know it.

I hope everyone is having a nice weekend. I didn’t do too much. It’s actually quite nice since I’ve been busy the last few weekends with things like going to the movies to see “Iron Man 3″ again and going to the gun range with a friend. I did go to dinner last night with some friends from out of town. It was nice to see them but man, were the drunkass adults out. It was Preakness weekend here in Baltimore. The place we went to for dinner wasn’t too far from the track and you could tell when all the nicely dressed drunks starting rolling in. Now listen, I’ve been drunk before but I’d like to think I wasn’t the one yelling at the TV while watching a baseball game and dropping various bombs along the way. Or the person who suddenly gets really loud who’s friends have to calm down. The way some were acting was better meant for being at the race or a baseball game. Our table was in a bad-is spot (they lost our reservation) which meant the bar was behind us. It was hard to hear everyone at my table between the noise and the layout of the place. It’s very open which causes a lot of extra noise. We should’ve known it was going to be one of those nights when we saw a man, close to his 50′s, fall backwards in the street while trying to close the backdoor on a SUV. Ah, Baltimore. Stay Classy!

This coming weekend, Memorial Weekend, I head down to Augusta to “re-marry” my friends from February. They’re having a reception and offered to pay for my flight and hotel if I’d come down and re-do the ceremony again. Did someone say free travel? The only thing that sucks is I know no one else there. My Aunt & Uncle were supposed to be going as well but something came up. Plus it’s Memorial Day weekend, the first three day weekend of the year. I’d kinda rather be doing things around here, like going to my friends cookout that I go to every year. Plus she turns 40 this weekend.

Oh well, I’m actually kinda focusing on San Diego right now. That can’t come soon enough!